Integrity and cognizance to try to be respectful in writing/reporting, especially in sports writing, is so very rare. Dylan’s last sentence encapsulates why he consistently succeeds on all counts.
Thanks for the perspective Dylan. I’ve always been skeptical of two Bigs generating enough offense to justify the strategy unless one of them can score from three and spread the floor. Hoping the team can weather the storm until Liver’s returns. Ithought they would be better defensively…what’s different? Players or scheme?
We really really need to beat Purdue. Getting crushed on the road against Illinois right now. Should have lost at home against Minny.
If we play like we did today I think we win
Agree that two bigs raises questions, I’m just not sure what the other option here is. Moving Franz to the 4 makes sense, but raises “who plays the 3?”…and the only answer to that is Adrián Nuñez, who does not appear to be a answer
Does anybody have any ideas on how to slow down Winston? I am not saying anybody else can do a better job but I think Winston is very comfortable with X guarding him. Extremely comfortable! Does X have specific defensive deficiencies? It was not exposed today but bigger guards can usually push him off and under the basket when driving. Anything else?
Tillman and Winston destroy us on pick and roll. Any ideas?
What bothers Winston? Is it length? Strength? I don’t think he is bothered by quickness of the defender at all.
Not trying to be contrarian, but he’s extremely creative, smart, and quick on his decisions. There’s a reason he’s lauded as much as he is. As Juwan said in his postgame pressure, his accolades exist for a reason.
Of course. He is amazing. If we can’t figure out how to slow him down we will lose all remaining games against him.
My apologies. I didn’t realize your question was rhetorical.
I agree here. This is as close to a must win as there is this time of year. Have to protect home court against a team that isn’t what it has been. Get confidence before 2 more road games.
No. I really want to know if any body has ideas on how to slow him down.
Oh man, considering their horses against our horses, especially at home, it will simply be a major upset if Blue doesn’t win on Thursday. I respect Painter almost as much as I did Beilein as far as coaching, but U-M has more talent; I’d argue a discernible amount. U-M will bring their best game, and it will be enough.
That’s a damn good question and I don’t have an answer. I don’t think many do.
I know it was after Winston’s major outburst, but I did like DDJ on him for the last 10 minutes or so. Game script could have made things different I get it, but it just seemed a bit different. Like Dylan hit on, it was huge that Winston basically did not have to guard X but X had to expend himself completely on both sides of the court. I don’t know how practical it is but between X, Eli and DDJ if we can just rotate the 3 thru Winston, mix is some zone/match-up hybrid we were doing to keep him from being so comfortable.
I think at this point we have to figure he is gonna get his and do his thing, but it may help us save X a bit to mix and match I really think it is taking a toll on him to do everything on O and also guarding the alpha on D.
Best way to get to Winston is having someone long and Uber athletic. It’s what UK could throw at him. We don’t have that option anywhere on our roster.
Yes. Charles Matthews would be perfect for this and we never got to see it because of the injury last year. Similar to Henry guarding X which I thought was a brilliant move for State.
Maaaaaaaybe Wagner with his length could pose a problem but he did get switched on Winston and did not go well.
I can’t remember if Matthews guarded him much last year. I don’t think so. He is just an absolute nightmare.
Matthews did not because he was hurt early in the first game. According to what was said on the pod, it did sound like it was something the staff was planning on last year.
Would have liked to have seen it at least as an experiment. Oh well. My hat goes off to Winston. Just amazing.
Winston was absolutely amazing. Just finished re-watching all of MSU’s offensive possessions – legit one of the most dominant performances I can remember. Michigan played a drop coverage, hard hedged, switched, used different primary defenders – none of it mattered. Cassius was that good. The difficulty of some of the shots he hit was unbelievable.